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Tag Archives: Leadership Insights

Who do you think of when you think of a servant leader? What are the traits of a servant leader?Is it possible for an entire organization to have these characteristics?

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I love to watch baseball. Live, up close: Hearing the “thwack!” of the bat making contact, feeling the crowd take a collective breath as a ball heads for the outfield, peering through the dust to see if the runner made it to home plate. There is something incredibly different about being there versus watching it on television. It’s just not the same reading about the game in the newspaper the next morning.

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“Servant leaders give more in value than they receive.” -Skip Prichard

Make the Choice to Learn

When I was young, I had the extraordinary opportunity to watch a different game. It was also live and up close. It was servant leadership at home. My parents literally took people in from all walks of life, individuals who needed a place to heal for all sorts of reasons. That childhood experience taught me the incredible lessons of a servant leader. There’s nothing better than watching servant leaders in action, in person, live in the game.

It was early in my life when I started studying leadership. Attending seminars and listening to teaching became a success habit. Even more importantly, I realized what I didn’t know, what I had to learn, what I was missing. I became determined to learn from those who were further along the leadership journey than I was. Because of this, I began to seek out leaders and ask them questions.

What I’ve learned is that learning is a choice. The most successful people I meet are constantly learning. They realize that they don’t have all the answers.

Look for Opportunities to Learn and Share

I’ve run a few global companies and, as the CEO, have hit home runs and have also struck out. Still, I’m always excited to keep improving my game. The learning continues.

Launching this blog a few years ago, I decided to share what I am learning from my own experiences, from books I read, and from thought leaders in many industries. Many of you have said these articles have helped you, but the real beneficiary has been me. I learn to be a better leader every time I share one of these ideas. And I also learn from your comments and engagement and the relationships I have established online.

Leaders realize that sharing and giving to others paves the way for more opportunities. It reinforces ideas and opens unexpected doors.

Today I want to share a new resource. It’s my free e-book, Servant Leadership: Leading With Others in Mind. It is free to anyone who signs up on our e-mail list. (Note: I will never sell your e-mail address.) Signing up for these posts will help you become a more widely read, more informed leader.

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You can learn about leadership from a variety of places. Researchers Howard Fero and Rebecca Herman decided to study leadership principles in Major League Baseball. Touring numerous MLB clubhouses and interviewing managers from Tampa’s Joe Maddon to Los Angeles’ Don Mattingly, they developed what they call the 10 bases of leadership.

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“Hope is energizing, engaging, contagious, and increases our spirit and ability to be resilient.” -Fero and Herman

Tell me more about your research. What were your goals? Where did your research take you?

The idea came to us about 2.5 years ago when we were in a session at a management conference. As leadership professors and consultants we know how important it is for people in all walks of life to develop their leadership skills and also know that quite often, they just don’t know how to do it. As we sat at the conference we had the idea to marry together our love of leadership with our other love, baseball.

The goals for our project were pretty ambitious. Without having any idea of how to go about achieving our goal, we decided we wanted to gain access to the players and managers from the 30 teams in Major League Baseball and find out from them how managers lead their teams, inspire trust, manage diverse populations, and deal with success as well as defeat. Our objective was to take the stories we heard and use them to develop strategies so that people outside of the game could develop their own leadership skills. We are proud to say that the ten Bases of Major League Leadership that are included in Lead Me Out to the Ballgame come from the interviews we held with 17 Major League Baseball managers and over 100 MLB players and executives.

Our research took us into the inner sanctum of Major League Baseball as we met with managers in their offices and in their dugouts during batting practice, and even on the third base line as they watched their players warm up. We also met with players in the clubhouses and learned from them some of the unique ways that their managers helped them to achieve success and overcome obstacles.

Your book shares 10 bases of leadership and is broken into 3 major sections: Leading Ourselves, Leading Others and Leading the Game. Let’s touch on one of the bases in each section.

Leading Yourself. Base number one is finding your passion. What advice do you have for someone looking for what really makes them tick, what really drives them?

We heard some great stories from managers and players about the importance of not only finding your passion but showing it to those around you. Ryan Doumit, a catcher, now with the Atlanta Braves, summed up many of the sentiments we heard when he said, “When the leader, the guy at the helm, believes and is passionate, it’s tough not to feel that same energy.” This is such a great point as it’s not enough for a person to be passionate about what he or she does. To be a leader this passion needs to be seen by others. In order for an impact to be made on a team, passion needs to be visible so that others will become excited about a goal as well.

Finding one’s passion is something we all need to do; we need to determine what it is we like to do. Do we like speaking with people and solving problems? Do we like crunching numbers and seeing the results emerge in front of our eyes? Do we like teaching others and seeing the light bulb go off when an idea resonates with them? To each of us there are different things which excite us, and it’s an individual’s task to identify them and determine what careers are a good fit for the things which excite us.

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“What I’m most proud of is the culture change, the belief in how it should be done, and then going out there and doing everything they can to make it work and make it happen.” -Ron Washington

Leading Others. Base number seven is effective communication. What tips do you have to help leaders communicate vision and inspire others?

We all make mistakes. When we learn from those mistakes, we are said to be wise. When we not only learn from those mistakes, but also then decide to use the experience to better the world, we become an inspiring example of what is possible. When we make serving others our primary goal, our view of the world shifts and new possibilities emerge.

I am excited to introduce Matt Tenney, who has written a terrific new book, Serve to Be Great. I’m always looking to learn from others, and here are a few lessons I learned from Matt’s powerful story:

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“There is no better way to build our influence with others than to serve them.” –Matt Tenney

3. When you change your self-talk, you change your world.

Reading Matt’s terrific new book, Serve to Be Great, I noticed that his self-talk changed throughout his story. As he planned a crime, he was justifying his actions. Now, his self-talk is all about how he can serve others.

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“Being fully present with a person is one of the most effective ways to show that we care.” –Matt Tenney

4. Learn how to change selfishness to selflessness.

Matt is constantly asking himself this question: “How will this help me to serve others?” By focusing everything outward, it changes his motivation and the trajectory of his actions. Matt’s goal is to be the most kind, compassionate person he can be. Get around him and you will find that you, too, want to be more compassionate.

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“Wisdom is much more likely to develop while we are still than when we are in motion.” –Matt Tenney

5. Service leads to greatness.

Leaders who lead with love are the ones we remember. Among the many examples Matt shares in his keynote speech is Joel Manby, who wrote Love Works. Joel is a CEO, featured on Undercover Boss, who leads with love. When leaders serve with love, the positive impact creates sustainable success.

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“The more focused I became on how I could serve others, the happier I became.” –Matt Tenney

6. Notice the extraordinary small moments.

Previously, Matt wrote a guest post for Leadership Insights about what he learned about leadership from Daniel. Daniel was a teenager dying from cancer, and yet he taught lessons that still make Matt emotional.

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“Every time we interact with another, we have the opportunity to add value to a life.” –Matt Tenney

7. In stillness, you can change your state of mind, your present and your future.

Practicing mindfulness and awareness training, which he learned from monks, is important for leaders. Lowering stress, becoming focused, and increasing your compassion for others is all possible through the practices he shares in his book.

Last week, I spent some time with Matt. I had the opportunity to watch him keynote for industry executives. I watched him interact with people from all walks of life. And I learned from his story. I think you will enjoy Matt’s story and his book.

As I wrote in a blurb he included in the book: “Serve to Be Great is both inspiring and practical. Matt Tenney delivers a powerful narrative that takes you on an incredible journey. The insights from that journey and the examples he shares of truly great leaders will improve your performance, widen your perspective, and raise your leadership game.”

Because service does lead to greatness. And servant leadership is the best form of leadership there is.

Last week, I posted a list of my 2012 interviews with over fifty thought leaders. From sports to business, I’ve been fortunate to learn from such distinguished leaders from all walks of life. Apart from the interviews, what posts proved to be the most popular in 2012?

What Works Is Often A Surprise

Talk to any blogger and you will likely hear the same thing. It is always a surprise to see what becomes popular. I may work like crazy on something for hours, post it and it may see very little traffic. Something else ends up taking off and it was almost a last minute thought. You just can’t predict.

In putting together a list of popular posts, there are also so many ways to look at the data. Do you measure purely by the traffic? If you do it that way, doesn’t that give an unfair advantage to content posted in January?

After looking at the statistics, I decided to pick the top posts by traffic with a weight based on the date. If a post was dated later in the year, it received a slightly higher weight to equal things out.

I also decided not to put them in any order, so this is a random list: